If students don't leave feedback, that doesn't mean they didn't like the session, many students buy lots of classes and never leave feedback (If they didn't like the session, they wouldn't keep buying, right?), sometiimes feedback is provided during the session privetely. 

We never know how many stars the student gave to the teacher, but there's always a balance, if some students give 3 and others give 5, you'll probably see " 4.9 ". When I am buying sessions from tutors, I do consider the rate, if I see 4.4, 4.5, 4.6 very often then I figure something is not okay, because it means many students are giving bad rates and as Moira, it's imporant to check if students are returning. 

The more classes students buy from the same teacher, more reliable the tutor is (in my opinion). 

As to rating tutors, if I book an informal tutoring and it doesn't go the way I expected, I still give the tutor 5 stars because he's a community tutor that is willing to help. I hardly give 4 or less stars, unless I notice that the tutor was not interested in helping me. But when I buy professional ones, then I can be very critical. 

As for feedback, usually I don't leave any for my teachers. I haven't the time! And I don't read the feedback anyway.

For my students I leave feedback sometimes, but usually I just write PRIVATE FEEDBACK. This is because I feel that most feedback should be private. especially as I teach quite a few children, and I really don't want their young age publicised or pointed out. There are too many weirdos out there.

I DO think that the star rating system, and the public feedback idea, should be overhauled. Perhaps ONE feedback at the end of a package. Perhaps ONE 'star rating' after a course has finished.

As nearly every teacher is a 'five star' teacher the system is pointless.

One of my students does this: "To find a good teacher I see how many sessions they have done, how many students they have had, and divide one into the other. If they have done 1000 lessons but have had 1000 students then their score is 1. If they have done 1000 lessons but have only had 100 students then their score is 10. The higher the score, the better. I ignore the star rating of a teacher."

Hello Gillian,

I find the star system really irritating, and have complained to italki about it! It's ok if you only take the occasional lesson, but if, like me, you book packages, then you are left with having to rate a teacher every single time. It's a lot of clicking, and a lot of conscience searching.

The truth is some lessons are great, others average, and even the best teachers have off days, or students they don't really gel with.

If I were being accurate and honest, I would give some lessons 5 stars, some 4, some 3, one or two would get only 1 or 2 stars. The same good teacher might have a really bad day, and I'd say that 5 star teacher gave a 2 star lesson. THAT day.

And I'd say I GIVE a lot of 4 or 5 star lessons, BUT quite a few 3 star ones, and some 2 star ones. I hope not too many 1 star ones!  I KNOW when a lesson isn't great.

And yet, there I am, every time, wondering whether to give the lesson 5 stars (to preserve the teacher's record, and earnings!) or to give it a 3 because that's what it was.

And there is no shame in a 3 star lesson occasionally. We all have bad days.

Gilliam, I understand you about the " conversational session request " topic. Unfortunately not many people are good at communication skills hehe, some tutors are just brilliant if you need explanation, orientation and more methodical things but they are not able to engage and instigate a conversation. Others are great talkers, know how to lead and maintain a conversation but cannot be methodic and others will be great at both and if you find them, make sure you never lose them. 

in this case, be proactive, even though it should be the teacher's role, that's what I do when I want to have conversational sessions with German or Russian tutors, they're reserved and shy people (compared to us Brazilians), most of my Russian and German tutors look serious and seem not to be very talkative, I understand that as a cultural thing, it's very rare to find extrovert German tutors that will answer the first video session with a smile and a strong voice showing confidence. What do I do in these situations in order to avoid those awkward minutes of silence? I do lead the conversation, even though they don't ask me anything in order for me to put in practice my skills, I do start talking about the weather, about what I did during the day, I ask them questions and make them engage in the conversation (should be the opposite, but what can I do? I only found two German tutors that have these basic communicative skills) hehe. 

So try that yourself, start the conversation topic, you want to talk about shopping? Tell them about the last time you went shopping, or what you like to buy, how often you do it, ask them questions, be creative, otherwise you'll keep frustrated after every session you. 

Thanks for your comments, I still do not understand the star system as I have never seen any with less than 5! I can see what you mean, and I understand that some people may have a bad day:) I am really just looking to see how I can choose better. I know from other things that stars are subjective on what the person's expectations are. so I do not go by stars! They may blame a teacher say if they did not learn a particular noun that day or something. I think I like to read what people have learned that day. I also have seen that several people return to the same person many times and I thought that was a good thing. I thought that was enough to know about someone who was good but I think the cost also affects how many lessons in some cases, but not all of course.

I had asked two tutors in advance to talk about a basic discussion topic and on both occasions we did not do that, for different reasons, both times it was things I could have done by myself we did not practice a short conversation I just read from a list of things, I need to practice conversations, even as a fairly new beginner. I found one great tutor but our schedules do not match at the moment. I will take more so that is fine.

How can I do it better please? Also should I send a recording to my tutor so that I can be sure that they understand me? I have spoken to many people and I have a fairly neutral Scottish accent but some tutors recently have had an issue with it,! but I have not had this problem according to my language partners!